10th Design Showroom, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Last week I visited the Design Showroom at my university (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) and I was surprised by the examples of student work which weren’t what I expected after ten years of cellebrating this event.

Before reading on, I should say that I don't consider myself an authority in design or design trends, but as a mere user, I am entitled to my own opinion.

The Design Showroom is a compilation of the best student work of the year and it’s been organized by my school during the last ten years. I was actually honored to be a winner in the “Graduation Projects” category back in 1998. It’s presented as an exhibition in the Architecture Museum located within the campus.

The Showroom is supposed to present the visitor with the top projects which are selected based on some predetermined criteria.

I was there for the very first Design Showroom 10 years ago, back when access to the Internet was limited still and I thought the world was small, and I remember thinking that the projects were really good and in tune with the times. I went to see the exhibition to find that after ten years it seems that Colombian design hasn’t grown much (At least in my university).

I saw the same kinds of projects, the same device for picking fruit, the same transportation vehicle for the handicapped, the same furniture… And what’s even sadder, our aesthetic sense is going downhill… I barely saw anything that I would tag as “beautiful”, let alone, “saleable”.

Now, my concerns are hardly about beauty —though design definitely has to do with it— but more related to our vision as designers. It would seem that Colombian designers have a limited vision of the world today and the world of the future.

I worry that our new designers are still plagued by the “third world” thinking, that they still think we’re small and that we have no impact as a country. Is that it? Is that why they keep designing as we did ten years ago? Globalization is with us today, so this kind of thinking really doesn’t serve us.

How can Colombian designers be top notch when years (even decades) ago movies like Total Recall, The Fifth Element and Minority Report (just to name a few) have presented such futuristic societies, their devices and their weird and innovative usability proposals? How can we compare?

And let’s not talk fiction, let’s talk reality. Watch this video of Jeff Han’s Jeff Han’s 8 foot Multi-touch display wall; this is already shipping! It is commercially available! So where is Colombian design compared to technology like this? To usability trends like the ones we are already seeing commercially? Have any of our young designers even seen an iPhone or iPod Touch presentation video? How can we measure up?

And yes, in a country like ours design has a big social function, but let’s not kid ourselves here: Design is primarily a business tool, a way of making successful products that ultimately, enhance the human experience. So are our designers in touch with the current design and market trends? How about usability trends? And what about the way design is affecting other cultures and societies? Are they not watching TV or going online sometimes?

Can any of that be applied here? Of course! So what’s the gap then? Where are the dreams of the designers and the wild ideas? And let’s face it, if these guys aren’t having wild ideas while at school, the opportunity to implement them is much smaller once they graduate.

I reviewed the teacher’s list at the Showroom and yes, many of my old teachers are still there. Are they encouraging futuristic and trend-conscious thinking in their students? And what about the new teachers? Is anybody in contact with what’s going on in the world in regards to design? In my opinion, our designers are designing the same stuff we did ten years ago, when we didn’t have as many resources as they do today.

And this also brings me to my next point: It is imperative that designers speak English today. In my experience speaking English has opened so many doors for me and has given me access to huge amounts of information from the web. I think it should be mandatory in university curriculums and it should be as important a subject as the creative ones.

What I did see, much to my relief, was the use of 3D software to present the projects. Back in my day we didn’t have access to such technology, but it is good to know that at least our designers are using that resource.

One of the really good proposals is IO, a lighting sculpture.


Another one is wawawasi, an aid for parents with children who are learning to walk. This one I actually think has great commercial potential.

Aside from that, I regret to say that I wasn’t moved. And the graphic design projects don’t offer anything new either.

My friend César Galán, has allowed me to use his photos of the Showroom and share them with you. Click here, to see them.

I would love to receive some comments from people from other universities, telling me how they view design in their respective schools, if they feel I’m off my rocker here… I sure could use some hope!

Anyway, if you’re a young designer, I recommend you check some of my old posts:
Design Resources: Design Management Institute, DMI.
Design magazines
Designers beware: Podcasts

… and come back to my blog because I intend to reveal more resources to check.

If you’d like to see a couple more videos of Jeff Han’s amazing touch screen wall, click here and here.
Also, I recommend you check How Magazine’s August 2007 issue entitled “The Future”.

All the best!

Design Resources: Design Management Institute, DMI.

Hello, there, Everybody! It’s been a long while! Do forgive me, life has been hectic. Anyway…

Here’s another wonderful resource I think designers from all over the world should know about, the Design Management Institute in Boston, US.

I learned about DMI several years ago when I was on a quest to find more information about design management. As they put it:

“The Design Management Institute (DMI) is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to heighten awareness of design as an essential part of business strategy. Founded in 1975, DMI has become the leading resource and international authority on design management. DMI has earned a reputation
worldwide as a multifaceted resource, providing invaluable know-how, tools and raining through its conferences, seminars, membership program, and publications."

The thing I like the most about DMI is that they are an unlimited source of information and education for any designer, even for us, who don’t live in the US, with the online tools (like Webinars) they’ve got.

There are also many conferences and seminars people in the US can attend. The agenda for October includes:

Design Research for Product and Service Innovation in Chicago.
Law Meets Design in New York.
From What’s Possible to What’s Right online.

Check out DMI’s calendar.


Most of the conferences and seminars are not free, but fairly priced and the topics are really interesting, because they cover design management issues that they don’t teach you at school (Or at least not my school).

Do click around their website to see all the different resources (They even have a job bank) and/or subscribe to their newsletter to get the latest news!

All the best!

Beginners guide to making money on the internet

Hello, Everybody! Today I bring you a guest post from John Mitchell. Very interesting read. Enjoy.

This is part 1 of my step by step beginners guide for making money on the Internet.All the Programs listed below are proven to generate income.

Step 1: Join Quidco.
Quidco is fantastic. It's a site that gives you cash back when you visit online merchants through them.When you buy or join anything through Quidco the merchant pays Quidco a reward, Quidco then passes 100% of that reward back to you.They charge you £5 a year admin fee, which they take out of your earnings.
Some of the Web's top merchants are there, e.g. Play.com, HMV, Tesco, Ebuyer. In all there are 1400 merchants currently listed on Quidco.Before you buy anything check to see if it's available on Quidco by clicking here

Step 2: Join Ciao.
Ciao send you surveys over email. For each survey you complete Ciao will pay you for your time.The amount varies for each survey but is generally between 50p and £2.50 and you can normally complete the surveys in a number of mins.
Ciao send me a number of surveys every week, and the money really adds up.It's useful to make sure that your profile is up to date to make sure that you get as many surveys as possible.
Click here to join Ciao.

Step 3: Join YouGovYougov is similar to Ciao. They send you surveys to your email address and they pay you to take part. They don't send as many surveys as Ciao but the surveys tend to be slightly more straight forward to complete.
Click here to join YouGov

Step 4: Join Clixsense
Clixsense is a site that pays you to look at adverts. Every time you log in click on the link to view adverts and a list of available adverts is displayed. Each advert is worth a different value and when you look at the advert for 30 seconds your account is accredited with that value. Generally the ad's are worth between 1 and 5 cents to view.
I know this doesn't sound like a lot of money but there are several adverts everyday and it soon adds up.Click here to join Clixsense

Step 5: Join Media Dollarz
Finally in this part a real freebie to start you on your money making way.
Media Dollarz is a company similar to Quidco. They pay you to join trials and shop with merchants.Media Dollarz will pay you $2.50 just for joining and validating your account. You are then free to withdraw the money into a paypal account as soon as you like. Free Money in mins.
Click here to join Media Dollarz



John Mitchell is an author of 3 Blogs, he is running a project to investigate how the Internet can be used by everyone to generate an income.His blogs can be found at:
http://webdosh.blogspot.com/
http://ourpieceoftheriver.blogspot.com/
http://chocolate-recipes-for-you.blogspot.com/

No post this weekend.

Hello, Everybody! I regret to inform you that other priorities got in the way of my writing this weekend. It seems that I've gotten busier and busier. I am trying my best to keep my blog up.
See you around.

Positive feedback

As most people, I was never very good at recognizing people’s efforts or saying a kind word whenever they showed some progress. In time I realized I had to leave my comfort zone in order to obtain better results.

I think that most people have trouble giving positive feedback. I know I do. However when you’re leading a team of people, be it a design team, your family or people working with you in any other endeavor, you really need to learn to acknowledge even the smallest efforts for improvement.

Why?

Well, who doesn’t want to be acknowledged and not taken for granted? Don’t you want to be? Don’t you get a little spring in your step when someone says something positive about you?

Would you agree with me if I said that positive feedback can largely increase your team’s productivity?

Well, that’s old news, yet I see too many professionals and managers who avoid it.


But what is positive feedback?

It is the action of telling somebody effectively that what they’re doing is acknowledged and recognized.

That’s pretty simple, isn’t it?

Not quite. You see, saying “good job” to someone doesn’t bear the same connotation to actually stating what it was they did well and its impact.


So how to go about it?

There are many resources on the Web about this subject and several ways to use it. Here’s my take on it:

When you spot something that someone has done, when you catch yourself thinking “hey, that’s pretty good”, every single time, even if it’s something small, follow the next steps:


Step 1: State the time.
The specific time in which the person did something well. The phrase should start with their name, followed by an expression of time.

E.g. “Hey, John, this morning…”
“John, yesterday during the meeting with customer x…”.
Be as precise as possible.


Step 2: State the action.
The actual thing they did. The fact.

E.g. “Hey, John, this morning when you delivered the sketches on time…”
“John, yesterday during the meeting with customer x you supported the concept we were presenting with the items you brought…”.


Step 3: State the impact.
On the operation, how what they did affects the results positively and how it makes you feel.

E.g. “Hey, John, this morning when you delivered the sketches on time, it proved to me that I can trust you with deadlines, that you’re a professional and that you care about what you do”.

“John, yesterday during the meeting with customer x you supported the concept we were presenting with the items you brought, which allowed the customer to visualize the project more effectively and made me feel very proud that you’re on our team”.


See, if you’re this specific when giving feedback it has a bigger impact on the person and encourages them to keep striving to be better.

I still struggle a bit with it, it doesn’t come as natural as I’d like, but I’ve found that giving positive feedback builds up relationships and contributes to a more effective and productive work environment.

Care to try this at home, as well?

All the best!

Paradigm shifts and design

I started at my new job this week. I haven’t been exposed to the specific tasks of the position, yet I’ve learned a few lessons…

It is a big company, so there were these introductory activities that are meant to give the newbie an idea of what the company is, where it’s going…

As a designer and professional I look for new challenges, I look to acquire new knowledge. Which may in the beginning be interpreted as challenges related to the technical aspects of design, form, color, sketching, specifications…

And then sometimes you find your challenges somewhere else and related to other things different than design.

This week I met this guy, 25-year-old. At first glance one of those yuppie guys that work in the commercial field, remembers everybody’s name, always smiling… you know the type, right? Your typical sales manager in the making.

In one of the activities we were all asked “what is something that few people know about you?” and his answer was “overcoming a back injury in a taekwondo match”.

I later on asked him about it and he told me about being in bed for two years because he’d broken his back, he wasn’t able to walk and he was told that if he were to walk again, he’d be “walking strange”.

I can tell you something, six years later, he’s not walking strange. Not only that, the guy jogs every day and at 25 he has a clear picture of where he’s going, what he wants; he’s building his life.

So this knowledge took me from seeing him as the yuppie careless kid, to admiring his vision and persistence and even feeling jealous of him because when I was his age I had no idea of where I was going.


Oh, but there was more for me to learn this week…

Another one of the people in the activities was this girl… She got there late, for starters. I immediately made the judgment that a person that would arrive late wasn’t very committed or maybe she just didn’t care.

During the day it became obvious that she was loud, bossy and obnoxious. I was thinking “thank the Lord she’s not in my area, I don’t have to work with her”.

And as luck would have it, at the end of the day I learned that she and I will actually be working really close together.

How ironic, huh?

I also learned that this twenty-something woman has a child and a husband, goes to college and works full time. Her day starts at 4am to study for her finals and then get her son ready for school at 5:30.

How about that? Suddenly my perception turned 180°, I could see her struggles and enthusiasm.

But what does all this have to do with design, you ask?

Not much, I guess.

But I wanted to bring this experience up to illustrate how we can get so immersed in our misconceptions that it takes a shift in our paradigms to understand, to be able to see further.

Would changing our paradigms have anything to do with design?

How about making assumptions about a problem? About people?

Could there be other alternatives? What else could it mean?

How else could we approach the issue?

Be open, be generous, be humble.

All the best.

Design leadership and the constant challenges

Early in my career I was faced with the challenge of being in charge of a section of the company I worked for which included having a person reporting to me. I remember feeling completely scared of becoming a bad boss!

At that time I consulted with a colleague of mine who’d had a lot more experience and he gave me a few pointers. In the end, his best advice was “just be yourself”.

So I became G’s boss.

G happened to be very receptive from the start as we were both learning all the technical aspects of the job.

In the beginning it was hard to get him to see the bigger picture, to plan ahead, he couldn’t imagine how he could predict the events and therefore, the actions to be taken for the upcoming weeks.

But during the five plus years that G and I worked together we both grew professionally to a point where we achieved autonomy in ourselves but presented results as a team.

This was an amazing growing experience and led me to want to continue to grow as a leader.

I recently was faced again with another “being the boss” challenge. Two girls reported to me. One fresh-out-of-college designer and another one with a bit more experience.

This posed a bigger test because I had to use different languages to speak to each of them.

Since my experience with G had been so good and we’d grown together at the same pace, I thought I could just use the same method with anybody.

Not!

Miss F, the fresh-out-of-college designer needed me to hold her hand a bit more, to walk her through the steps of the different activities, to guide her. And she would usually come back to me with “What do I do now, Carolina?”

And I found myself resisting the urge to give her a straight answer. I had to get her to think, to come up with solutions by herself, to be more independent every day, to ask me less.

In the eight months that we worked together she came a long way and could do most of her work all by herself. I was very proud of myself and her.

The other girl, Miss Q, she had a bit more experience and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Also, she was strong-willed and assertive. This demanded a different approach from me, one where the ideas would mostly come from her, with a little guidance from me.

This also resulted in a great growing experience; the more I demanded from her, the more she would give and the more she came up with new ideas and solutions.

I have a point, I promise…

Sometimes designers end up becoming creative directors or managing a small group of creative people, which may not be something they ever saw themselves doing.

So here are a few tips to be more effective in that arena:

Be yourself, really. As I’ve said in a previous post, it’s not about barking orders or being in a position of power. It’s about getting the best of people and people will give you their best when you are authentic, honest and real.
Be clear about goals and expectations. Communicate them frequently.

Spend some time trying to figure out what the other person is about, what their mental process is, how they handle information, so that you can figure out the best way to get through to them.

It’s not about them adapting to you or following your lead, but quite the opposite. It’s about you stretching yourself to find the most effective way to get the best out of your team and have some fun while doing it!

I am so looking forward to more leadership challenges in the future, as they are the most interesting part of my work!

Mi idea with this post is that designers think outside of the box and start reflecting on the direction their career can go in the future and if they want to be in a leadership position. If so, start preparing.

Read some books about personal leadership, building teams, managing people and resources… Become aware. There’s a lot of information on the web, podcasts and books.

Epilogue: G went on to take my position and is now the design leader there. Miss F and Miss Q continue to work in my previous company, where they are faced with bigger challenges everyday. The both insist that I was a great boss ;-)

All the best!